The Creation Of My Hollywood Smile

For the last week or so I have been wearing set 9 of my Invisalign upper refinements – the last set! I’m thrilled to report that not only have my teeth improved over these nine sets, they have improved in all the places that didn’t improve with the first run of 17 aligners. The molar on the right hand side which was out of line and too long has now moved into place perfectly. The front left tooth that was still twisted and out of line is 99% straight now- although I would like to get that last 1% corrected too as it is a front tooth. One thing I’m not sure of is whether at this point that is still an orthodontic issue or something that will be fixed by getting my new crown on the tooth next to it (yes, the ugly old crown on the front left tooth is still hanging in there, and still horribly discolored – see pics below)

However, having corrected those problems another one has arisen. My upper left molars now look to be in shadow compared to the front teeth. In fact they looked substantially better at set 23 of my Invisalign than they do now. I’m not sure whether this is because my eye tooth has moved outwards during my refinements and thrown them into shadow (you can see that it was programmed to move out on the refinements clincheck) or because the molars need to move out more. I notice that on the clincheck the front few teeth move out, but the molars don’t move with them, hence the problem. I mentioned this to my orthodontist at my last appointment and he hummed and haaahd and was a little noncommittal, however I am certain I want to fix this. I know that I said that I didn’t want perfect teeth, but it turns out that I am not as laissez faire as I first imagined and I do want them more perfect than this! Judging by how things have gone so far, and how well my Invisalign have worked up to this point, I imagine that it would be a very simple refinement to get them where I want them,

In another week or so I have a long appointment with my orthodontist where we will remove the upper attachments (joy!) look at my upper teeth and decide what to do with them. He seems quite keen on leaving them as they are- I am much, much less keen on that idea! Fortunately he is the kind of orthodontist that really seems to take your opinions into account, so I’ll report back after my appointment as to what we decide.

My lower teeth are now on set 29 and I am thrilled with how they are progressing. If you look at my original pre Invisalign pictures below you can see that they were really, really straggly, for want of a better word. They are not perfect yet by a long way; but they are so, so much better.

Anyway, I’ll leave you with the pictures and let you judge for yourself. Please feel free to leave a comment letting me know what you think. Clicking the “leave a comment” link at the bottom of this page will take you to the comments form. As always, thanks for reading.

Before Invisalign:

After 29 sets of Invisalign braces on my lower arch and 17 original plus 9 refinements sets on my upper arch. See how much the bottom teeth have improved:

Invisalign before and after pictures – teeth set 29 tilt

This picture below shows how the left side upper molars are thrown into shadow behind the eye teeth now. In both pictures and in person those teeth almost look “missing” now:

Invisalign before and after pictures – set 29

Whereas in this picture below taken at set 23, before the eye tooth moved outwards, the molars looked much, much better and were visible when I smiled.

Invisalign before and after pictures – teeth set 29

I will be taking a copy of these images to show my orthodontist and see what he says- Watch this space!

Once or twice I have watched Extreme makeover, that show where ordinary people undergo transformations through plastic surgery and dental procedures to make themselves look and feel better. Or, at least, that’s the idea. The thing that has always struck me about the whole “reveal” experience on those shows is that very often the thing that makes the most difference is not the breast enlargements, the liposuction or the face lifts, it’s their new teeth. The teeth alone can make someone look ten years younger, wealthier, healthier- like a completely different person.

teeth with whitening tray

I think that may be one of the only problems with Invisalign as far as I am concerned. Whilst I love- really love, the ability to remove them at whim, it does mean that I am watching my teeth improve week by week and the ultimate reveal may be something of an anti-climax. I imagine that with metal braces it is much harder to see the results as they happen, and getting them removed must therefore be much more exciting. Of course, it is motivating to see your teeth improving set by set, but you have to go back to your pre– invisalign braces photos to see how bad they really were at the beginning and why you are going through this process.

The thing is, you see, that I am starting to really, really like my teeth- well the top ones at least. They look straighter, they look whiter (thanks to the bleaching), they look, well, like someone else’s teeth to be honest! It is such a thrill to see them like that. I am now getting ridiculously excited about getting my new crown on my upper right incisor(despite how much I am dreading the actual procedure) as that is the only thing marring their new improved look. Nonetheless, I am delighted with how things are proceeding.

I am on set 10/17 for my uppers, which is why I am now seeing such an improvement. (More than halfway through, yay!) My lowers however, are on 10/34 so they still have a long, long way to go. I can already tell though that it is harder to get my fingers between my upper and lower front teeth, so there must be some movement happening, it is just less obvious to the eye. I should point out that although I have a large overjet it is caused by my bottom teeth being too far back, not my top teeth being too far forward. Apparently, the way that I used to suck my thumb (and frankly, I don’t even want to tell you what age I stopped, it is truly, truly shameful!) pressed my bottom teeth back.

Set 10 haven’t been a problem at all. The bottom set of aligners were spectacularly difficult to insert at the first few attempts, in fact, I went and checked the packet very carefully, just to be sure that I hadn’t skipped a set. I hadn’t, they were the correct ones. I think the reason is that they are having to work very hard now as there is such a long way for my bottom teeth to move. You can see how much work they have to still do on my clincheck here.

I think I am back on track compliance wise, bar the odd slip up, and judging by how tight the last set were I need to be.

I have a small issue that I have been discussing with my orthodontist regarding one of my upper molars. (see tiny pic above) I think it is too long, he thinks the one next to it is too short and is attempting to pull it down. Whilst I disagree with him on this one tooth, I am happy to finish this course of treatment and see how it looks. He has promised that if I don’t like it we can adjust it through refinements. On balance given what Invisalign cost and as he has studied orthodontics for 30 plus years and I have only been wearing braces for 4 months, I am prepared to concede to his better judgement on this one. I’ll let you know if he was right!

My orthodontist seems like a nice guy. He is certainly experienced with Invisalign, is funny, reassuring and seems to know what he is doing. Generally he fills me with confidence. I must confess I wasn’t wild about his lectures to his postgrad students on my teeth being called “A silly thing to try and do with Invisalign” but I took it in fairly good heart. However, when at my latest visit he told me that if what he is trying to do to my teeth with Invisalign works, he will write about it for the medical journals, I really started to get nervous…

I’m not so keen on being a guinea pig!

Funnily enough, I don’t like the sound of that. Not that I mind being in the medical journals- I have been in hundreds of magazines in my prior career as a model and presumably I wouldn’t be identified, so that isn’t a problem. Rather it is the feeling that I am some kind of orthodontic guinea pig that is scaring me.

Now I should be fair here. My orthodontist was extremely straightforward with me and told me from the outset that the tooth that I have at the bottom of my mouth would be very hard to move. See my clincheck here. He also warned me before treatment started that there was a good chance that it won’t move at all, and that even having created a space for it, it may just not move up into the place we make for it. If it does, I will need a fixed brace on that tooth and the ones next to it to get it to move. I know all that, and I accept it fully. If the tooth in question fails to move I will have that tooth extracted and either close the gap again or get some kind of implant tooth or similar.

I think what maybe I didn’t appreciate, however, was that it hadn’t really been tried before, or that if it worked it would be such a new technique for Invisalign it would make the medical journals! I thought it was more of a “this could be a bit tricky” scenario, rather than a “this might be a world first” Still, I am going to remain positive, nonetheless. Repeat after me….I believe that my teeth can move, I believe…

Other than scaring me half out of my wits the appointment went well however. He did a tiny bit of Invisalign IPR (filing between my teeth to make them close together tighter) even though it wasn’t on my schedule, just because he felt that two of my teeth were a little close together and might have difficulty moving past each other. I haven’t had Invisalign IPR before and it wasn’t the most pleasant of experiences but it wasn’t awful. He simply took some type of metal file and slid it into the gap between my teeth. He then moved it backwards and forwards between my teeth in a sawing action shaving a tiny bit of tooth off. There was a grinding, grating sensation, and it very definitely felt like he was shaving the sides of my teeth off, but there was absolutely no pain whatsoever. I spent the whole time a little petrified that he would somehow miss and file my gum, but that didn’t happen.

See below for a very quick video on what happens with Invisalign IPR:

Other than that everything is on track. I picked up sets 9-11 and will put set 9 in tonight. The great news is that comparing sets 1-11 I can definitely see some differences in the aligners now, so I shall post some pictures of that over the next couple of days.

Finally, thanks again to everyone for all your comments. I really enjoy getting them and knowing that people are actually reading this!

These are my Invisalign clincheck videos. The top arches show my complete treatment, although of course refinements might be necessary. The bottom arches show the first phase only which doesn’t even begin to try and move the tooth that grows out across the bottom of my mouth. Even this first phase will take 34 trays on the bottom arches which sounds incredibly daunting from where I am currently sitting. For an explanation of why this one difficult tooth can’t be removed, please go back to the beginning of my Invisalign blog for the full gruesome explanation.
This first video shows my teeth pre-treatment. I think they look much worse in real life than they do on here. The computer simulation doesn’t seem to fully reflect how far my top teeth project forward over my bottom teeth. In reality I can fit the top of my thumb between my top and bottom front teeth when my molars are biting together.

The second video shows both arches through treatment although this obviously this isn’t the final result for the bottom arches…

Top arches through treatment (17 trays plus refinements)

Bottom arches through first phase of treatment

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After 8 hours of Invisalign wearing (well, to be honest about 6 hours because I took them out to go out to dinner) I think I am bearing up fairly well…. Although my husband who has borne the brunt of my constant chatter and whinging about them all day, might beg to differ! The first day of Invisalign has been different – I’m hoping it gets easier!

The fitting appointment was much swifter than I expected. The orthodontist fitted them, checked he was happy, told me how many trays (17 upper and 34 lower) I have and how many buttons or attachments (five) and then left his assistant to run me through the ins and outs of caring for them. Fortunately, she has them in herself at the moment, so she gave me a pretty realistic overview of how easily or otherwise they fit into your life, including letting it slip that she takes hers out from 6-9.30pm each night so she can drink!!

The first moment that they went in they felt incredibly tight, not painful exactly, but an unpleasant feeling of pressure that almost seemed unbearable, and made me feel strangely claustrophobic. My first thought was simply that I can’t do this. However, within the space of two minutes or so it started to ease, and didn’t feel nearly as bad. There was still a persistent pressure, but it wasn’t painful or intolerable.

The assistant got me to take them on and off for her, which wasn’t too hard at that point. It seems to be a case of hooking the backs with your thumbnails and then working your way around. If you have very short nails I would advise growing your thumbnails a bit before your first fitting and first day of Invisalign as it really does seem to help. I got all the care information from her too. I have to change them every two weeks, and can only take them out to eat. Whilst they are in I can have water and nothing else. (Even white wine is banned apparently, I did check!!)

Invisalign Clinchecks

The Invisalign leaflet they gave me tells me that they should be in 22 hours a day although she told me that hers are only in 18 most days. With the amount I am paying I think I’ll try and get closer to the 22. They didn’t show me my clincheck there, however they did give me a dvd to watch at home, I’ll try and work out how to post it tomorrow. Funnily enough, my top teeth don’t look that bad to begin with on the clincheck, although in real life I think they look awful!

My husband and 2 daughters aged 7 & 5 picked me up from the appointment, and within 10 seconds my 7 year old told me that she could see them and that my teeth look “too shiny”. My 5 year old said that she couldn’t see them, so I turned and bared my teeth for her… at which point she screamed! I’m not sure whether it was a result of my expression or the Invisalign, I’m hoping the former.

My husband seemed pleasantly surprised. Apparently he had thought that there would be a wire involved somewhere, despite my having shown him all the literature. Just shows how much attention he pays to what I’m telling him!

I am pretty happy with how they look. They do make your teeth look unnaturally shiny, and a little bigger somehow, but they are nothing compared to traditional train track braces. I don’t think that anybody who didn’t know you very well would really notice anything different at all.

After the appointment I took myself off to the January sales for a distraction, but there were just so many mirrors and I couldn’t stop myself from peering at them every 20 metres, baring my teeth, so I gave up and went home.

My appointment was at 11.20am and by 2pm I was starving so I knew I had to get them out. The bottom ones came out fairly easily, but the top ones were really hard to get out. They seemed to get stuck at the front where my crown is, and I was convinced I was going to pull the whole crown out, but after a couple of minutes of painful tugging I managed to remove them.

For dinner we went out to a local restaurant and I decided to remove them in the car before we went in. Again, the bottoms weren’t too much trouble but the tops were really hard. My husband and kids were all watching, and I was getting increasingly frustrated and almost panicky that I would never get them out, but in the end I got there by working backwards and forwards along the upper row with my thumbnails.

There hasn’t been much real pain which is quite a relief – I had read that your first day of Invisalign can be painful. I did take one paracetamol at 12 and another about 5pm but that was more than enough. Funnily enough, the only real pain has been for the first 10 minutes after I take the trays out to eat. My teeth feel very, very sensitive and tender to bite down on, almost like biting down on a tooth that has a toothache. It goes away remarkably quickly though and they feel perfectly normal within 15 minutes.

Whilst they are in my mouth there is no pain of which to speak, more a strange feeling of pressure. The only other thing is that you feel as if you can’t shut your teeth properly. If you have ever had that feeling after a filling where your teeth don’t feel like they are able to bite together properly, the feeling of the trays on your teeth is similar.

I’m feeling very optimistic about it all after the first day of Invisalign. The only real problem has been removal of the trays, and hopefully that should ease in the next day or so as they get a little bit looser. I’ll let you know..

As a postscript my husband just walked over as I finished typing the above, peered at my teeth and declared that you can’t even see them at all. Bingo.

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